Moving to Libreville

Today we look at moving to Libreville in Gabon from Asmara in Eritrea. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Libreville people speak French and Bantu-group languages. In Asmara people speak Tigrinya, Tigre, Arabic and English.

Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea.
Libreville is home to a shipbuilding industry, brewing industry and sawmills. The city exports raw materials such as wood, rubber and cocoa from the city's main port, and the deepwater port at Owendo.
Textiles and clothing, processed meat, beer, shoes, and ceramics are the major industrial products of Asmara.

The overall cost of living rank in Libreville is 51 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with high cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Asmara to Libreville will experience a change in cost of living of 47%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Libreville is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to Asmara with a hardship index of 40% which is an extreme hardship location.

Source: http://www.xpatulator.com as at July 2011.